Criticized, Twitter picks Jeffrey Siminoff as the new chief of diversity

Twitter's announcement that Jeffrey Siminoff is its new vice president of diversity and inclusion is the latest move by a big technology company to counter the perception that the industry doesn't have an egalitarian culture

Siminoff, 50, was previously head of diversity at Apple, which has also been criticized for the makeup of its workforce, and he is a co-founder of Out Leadership, a lesbian, gay and transgender advocacy organization.

The hiring of Siminoff is the latest move by a big technology company to counter the perception that, despite its claims of an egalitarian culture, the industry’s collective track record in encouraging a diverse employee base is no better than that of other industries and perhaps worse.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader, has drawn attention to the issue by regularly attending shareholder meetings in Silicon Valley and has encouraged companies to release reports on the demographic makeup of their workforces and leadership teams. Most companies, including Apple, have said in their reports that, while they believe they have made progress, they need to improve.

I thought that these tech companies would have been more inclusive

“What’s astonishing to me is that these companies, with their liberal facades, resist our work,” Jackson said in an interview. He noted that companies in the eastern part of the country had had to grapple with unionization, diversity issues and worker rights for decades.

“I thought that these tech companies would have been more inclusive, but they are way behind,” he said.

Time of transition

The issue has gained particular attention at Twitter, which faces difficult business and cultural transitions. The company’s stock has fallen about 37 percent this year as its leadership team, which was overhauled this summer when Jack Dorsey returned as chief executive, has struggled to attract new users and advertisers.

Twitter confirmed Siminoff’s hiring on Tuesday, but declined to comment on the criticism it had faced over the number of women and minorities in its workforce.

Employees at Twitter have openly discussed Twitter’s difficulties in hiring and retaining women and minorities, an issue that arose most recently in November, after the company, which is based in San Francisco, cut more than 300 jobs.

In a widely read blog post, Leslie Miley, a former engineer, wrote that after the job cuts, “Twitter no longer has any managers, directors or VPs of color in engineering or product management.”

Miley wrote that black adults accounted for about a quarter of Twitter’s users, but that black employees made up about 2 percent of the company’s workforce.

Who was affected by layoffs?

Jackson wrote to Dorsey that he was concerned Twitter had laid off a disproportionate number of minorities and asked the company to release a breakdown of the workers affected. Jackson said that Twitter did not respond to his requests.

In addition, black Twitter users have used the service to criticize the fact that Twitter hired a white man to lead its diversity efforts.

“There was such a strong reaction to the changing of the guard because the person who was hired reflects the existing employee base, which is especially controversial for someone leading diversity,” said Mark Luckie, a former manager at Twitter who oversaw journalism and news at the company. Luckie now runs Today in #BlackTwitter, a digest of the topics that are trending among the company’s black users.

Van Huysse, Twitter’s diversity officer at the time, wrote in a blog post in August that Twitter had set a goal to have women account for 16 percent of technology roles and 25 percent of leadership roles.

In the United States, Twitter also planned to increase the number of African-Americans and Hispanics in technology roles to 9 percent and in leadership roles to 6 percent, according to the post.

Twitter was committed to becoming a more diverse company “to reflect the vast range of people who use Twitter,” Van Huysse wrote. She left after six years at the company and has not announced what she will do next.

Statistics

Companies like Apple, Facebook, Google and Twitter have given money to programs meant to help increase the numbers of black and Hispanic software engineers. But that has not necessarily changed the statistics.

“After most companies said they would get their minority numbers up and improve their applicant processes, there was dead silence after,” Luckie said.

Jackson wonders if some technology companies simply hope the problem will go away. “We purchase these tech products. We use them. We need them. Colleges use them. Consumers use them. There’s no good reason they should not make their companies look like America and the Americans who buy their products,” he said.

Still, Jackson says he believes companies like Intel and Microsoft have made real efforts to address the fact that they have predominately white, male technology workers and executives. But he is waiting to see whether the industry, as a whole, can improve.

“I can’t grade these companies yet,” he said. “I give them an incomplete.”